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13 employees have been fired from Bowen and Bowen because they failed to show up to work.

Public Relations Officer Christelle Wilson told 7News that at the end of the business today the company took the decision to terminate the employees for services no longer required. Â Apparently, the company concluded that they had abandoned their posts, and so they were replaced. Â Most were delivery-men. Â That’s a real stunner because just yesterday the workers had been going around to labour unions and the media trying to get their story out. Â This morning, they went to the labour office. Â They were contesting the terms of a new work contract. Â Well, not anymore. One hour ago, when we called one of those terminated employees, he told us he knew nothing of it, and that all of them had their doctor’s papers. Â He said the labour office told them to go into work tomorrow. Â But, now all that is very up in the air.

Their complaints was that if they sign the new contracts, their commission and their overtime would be severely cut.

Well, today – before the firings - 7News spoke with the PR Officer Wilson and she explained to us that this new system is called pre-sale. It means that there will be sales representatives who will go out and make contact with all the customers. They will then make purchase orders and then the deliverymen will go and make the deliveries and then another representative would collect for the sales. These delivery men, who claim that the contract will hurt them, will no longer be paid over time and the commission would be reduced, but according to the PR Officer, will get a 27% pay raise to compensate for it. She explained that the employees over reacted because it is a carefully calculated formula in the workers’ benefit:

Christelle Wilson - Public Relations Officer, Bowen & Bowen
"What we did, we looked at what they accrue as over-time. We put that as their basic salary, and we have now given them a new basic flat-rate salary. But it is at an increase of 27%, and after that we looked at what they would have made as their commission. And we said, 'Okay, guys were making, let's say 10 cents on every case of products that they sold. However, now, under this new pre-sale system, they would be selling much more case because the pre-sales man would be able to go to many more customers and get many more orders.' So, now, we would not only be selling 400 cases, but maybe 1,000+ cases of products. So, we said, we are going to reduce the commission from 10 cents a case to - it's either 5 or 7 cents - I need to get the figures accurate. But, because of the volume in take up of the amount of sales, the commission would far out-way what they used to make. So, there is a great increase all across the board. And, it's not more work, you are simply delivering on the orders that were taken in. So, you're still doing the same job description that you were doing before the system came into effect, just now in a more structured environment. We have actually punched in the numbers. We have done this in San Pedro and in Caye Caulker, and we have looked at what employees used to make, and the now new take-up of products because we have the pre-salesmen going out to market the goods and selling them, that the commission has far increased what they used to make. So, we took everything into consideration, and we punched in what these guys were making, and the projected sales. So, we can say on the record a fact that they will be making much more than they used to make under the old system. And, what I find a little bit disheartening is that these guys did not come to work on Tuesday. They have not come to work today. They have not even seen what the commission would have been. They have not received their adjusted pay slip to make any comparisons to see if there was really a decrease in their salary. They have gotten so riled up, and we're trying to explain to them." 

Again, that was before the 13 employees were terminated. Â The company says they self-dismissed by not showing up at work and not calling their supervisor. Â They say they had doctor’s papers. Â Tomorrow we’ll have the worker’s side of the firing.